HP has a pretty loyal following. But really? The HP is nothing in comparison to TI. It’s just not. I wonder if there’s ever been a “calculator off” that put users against each other to see who could make a series of calculations faster.
The HP-48G is a venerable, unstoppable calculator. The damn thing will do anything, it makes the lowly TI-82’s that my classmates used cry when he it shows up. Reverse polish notation has a bit of a learning curve, but definately speeds up your calculations.
If calculators were cars, the TI-82 would be the Honda Civic… built for reliability, no frills, not much going on, the HP-48G would be the Ferrari Enzo… pure performance machine.
Ted’s right on. It’s all about having an appropriate amount of power and useability. HP’s may have crazy minesweeper games and enough RAM to run World of Warcraft… but my TI-82 is as simple as it gets. And still capable of great problem solving.
I am a huge fan of Windows minesweeper though. HUGE fan. so I’d be interested in hearing about the differences between HP and Windows.
As a matter of fact, we used to race our calculators back in high school, i believe the standard way to test was to run factorials, since they tended to take the longest so there would be a clear winner. I can’t remember which factorial we used to run though, something like 42? They took up to a minute each to run, if i remember the TI won by a long shot.
I almost cried the day my TI-89 dissapeared from the campus center. I went for some food, came back, and she was missing.
I remember fondly the days we shared in high school, the nerve-racking day we took the AP Calc test together, and the celebration we shared when I got a 5 on the test.
The useless programs were wonderful too. I wrote one that would calculate the next prime number from any starting number you input.
I couldnt bring myself to replace my TI-89, taken before it’s time. I just leave an empty spot on my desk, hoping it will return one day.
The HP minesweeper puts you in the top-left corner of the screen, and you have to get to the bottom-right corner of the screen without getting blown up. It’s definitely a different perspective. Sometimes I’ll mix it up a bit by only allowing myself to go either down or over.
The HP minesweeper got me through many a horrible math class. I dig HP because once you get through the RPN learning curve and learn to use the stack correctly, you can fly through calculations faster than I could with a standard TI. Plus the 48 had all the advanced features (3-d wireframe plots!)
But, as far as speed goes, TI’s convert to reverse polish internally so I think skipping the parsing step would lead to faster calculations.
Well what if you have no calculations to make, huh? Wouldn’t that stop you?
HP > TI
Long live Reverse Polish!
Good lord, I’ve now had mine for 10 years now…
HP has a pretty loyal following. But really? The HP is nothing in comparison to TI. It’s just not. I wonder if there’s ever been a “calculator off” that put users against each other to see who could make a series of calculations faster.
That would be very interesting.
The HP-48G is a venerable, unstoppable calculator. The damn thing will do anything, it makes the lowly TI-82’s that my classmates used cry when he it shows up. Reverse polish notation has a bit of a learning curve, but definately speeds up your calculations.
If calculators were cars, the TI-82 would be the Honda Civic… built for reliability, no frills, not much going on, the HP-48G would be the Ferrari Enzo… pure performance machine.
http://www.vcalc.net/images2/HpCALCS-131-678×1024.jpg
Oooooh, but I have HP-48GX! (the only difference being it can handle memory cards and stuff, none of which I have).
The Reverse Polish is always fun when a classmate (or roommate) needs to borrow your calculator…
“Hey, can I borrow your calculator for a sec?”
“Um, you’re not going to figure it out…”
“Oh, c’mon.”
“Fine. Here you go.”
[beep]
“Wtf?! This calculator is dumb.”
I am quite fond of the built-in minesweeper game. It’s a little different than the windows version.
No sense in using the TI-82 with the TI-83 available. Regardless, I am faithful to my TI-86, the best combination of power and simplicity!
Ted’s right on. It’s all about having an appropriate amount of power and useability. HP’s may have crazy minesweeper games and enough RAM to run World of Warcraft… but my TI-82 is as simple as it gets. And still capable of great problem solving.
I am a huge fan of Windows minesweeper though. HUGE fan. so I’d be interested in hearing about the differences between HP and Windows.
As a matter of fact, we used to race our calculators back in high school, i believe the standard way to test was to run factorials, since they tended to take the longest so there would be a clear winner. I can’t remember which factorial we used to run though, something like 42? They took up to a minute each to run, if i remember the TI won by a long shot.
I almost cried the day my TI-89 dissapeared from the campus center. I went for some food, came back, and she was missing.
I remember fondly the days we shared in high school, the nerve-racking day we took the AP Calc test together, and the celebration we shared when I got a 5 on the test.
The useless programs were wonderful too. I wrote one that would calculate the next prime number from any starting number you input.
I couldnt bring myself to replace my TI-89, taken before it’s time. I just leave an empty spot on my desk, hoping it will return one day.
TI-voyage 200 owns.
(its basically a TI-92plus, which is basically a TI-92, which the TI-89 basically is, basically.)
greetings from oregon!
The HP minesweeper puts you in the top-left corner of the screen, and you have to get to the bottom-right corner of the screen without getting blown up. It’s definitely a different perspective. Sometimes I’ll mix it up a bit by only allowing myself to go either down or over.
The HP minesweeper got me through many a horrible math class. I dig HP because once you get through the RPN learning curve and learn to use the stack correctly, you can fly through calculations faster than I could with a standard TI. Plus the 48 had all the advanced features (3-d wireframe plots!)
But, as far as speed goes, TI’s convert to reverse polish internally so I think skipping the parsing step would lead to faster calculations.